Surgical devices are used in various open, endoscopic, and laparoscopic surgeries to transect tissue volumes and blood vessels. The devices generally include jaws for grasping tissue therebetween and a cutting mechanism that is advanced through the grasped tissue to transect it. The cutting mechanism can be designed to travel within a track formed in one or both jaws of the cutting mechanism. In some instances the devices can also be used to seal tissue volumes and blood vessels being transected, for instance by applying electrical energy to the grasped tissue to seal it before tissue transection is completed. For example, various mono-polar and bi-polar radio frequency (RF) surgical instruments and surgical techniques have been developed for sealing tissue volumes and blood vessels. Electrodes can be disposed on a face of one or both of the jaws and can apply energy to the grasped tissue to promote hemostasis.
One issue that can plague tissue cutting devices is that the cutting mechanism may become dislodged or may otherwise fall out of a track formed in one or both of the jaws. The likelihood of the cutting mechanism becoming dislodged in current cutting devices typically increases as the thickness of the tissue volume or blood vessel being transected by the device increases. This is because a thicker tissue can cause the jaws to be open too wide such that the cutting mechanism becomes displaced from the track(s).
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved surgical devices that help to maintain a desired location of a cutting mechanism even in the presence of thicker tissue or blood vessels.